July 23, 2024, 17:12 | Updated: July 24, 2024, 8:23 a. m. m.
Kent refugee camp, June 3, 2024 (Photo: Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio)
(Photo: Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio)
BY SAM CAMPBELL
About 170 asylum-seeking refugees living in a Kent camp have been moved to transitional accommodations over the course of a week, King County and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) told KIRO Newsradio.
It’s one of the largest quakes ever experienced by a group of refugees who over the past year have moved from city to city in King County as efforts to get housing assistance slowed.
Jon Grant, LIHI’s chief strategy officer, said the organization was primarily inclusive of women and children.
“These are very young children; There are babies and toddlers who were sleeping outdoors in this box during the heat wave,” he said. “So we try to act as temporarily as possible to attract as many people to the place as possible. “
According to Grant, the vast majority of those housed were placed in rental housing in homes owned by LIHI in King County. Grant said LIHI also offers a rental subsidy.
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In an email to KIRO Newsradio, a spokesperson for King County said the state has given the county a total of $5 million for refugee relief. But it appears that only a portion of this money was diverted to help the Kent refugee camp.
Grant said the recent relocation of the 170 refugees was funded with about $1. 2 million through King County. He described it as a stopgap measure to fill the void while LIHI, its partners and the refugees wait for a public program to begin this fall.
“We view this as a bridge investment to a broader program that is being built at the state level,” Grant said, referring to the Washington State Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. “(He) will coordinate a statewide effort to provide housing and legal assistance to others. This will be implemented in September.
Meanwhile, between 40 and 50 refugees, mostly from countries in Africa and Central and South America, remain at the Kent camp on Central Avenue, near the on-ramp to state Route 167. Several men who live in The camp told KIRO Newsradio that they are worried. that the expected help will not come soon enough because they are running out of food.
Previous coverage: Hundreds of asylum-seeking refugees set up camp in Central District Park
The camp is basically based on food donations, but donations have slowed, refugees said. Refugees showed KIRO Newsradio reporter Sam Campbell the tent set up as a makeshift kitchen, where propane tanks used to cook food had been emptied and canned food materials are in short supply.
They built their makeshift tent in the kitchen, where propane is running out and canned goods are running out.
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Alexander Jimenez from Venezuela spoke with KIRO Newsradio, his remarks translated from Spanish to English.
He asked citizens “to call the city council to approve, through the LIHI, other rooms so that those of us who remain here can also leave this camp. “
But even after leaving the camp, Grant said money for transitional housing for the 170 refugees would cover rent for about six months, after which he expects the state program to take over.
It’s not permanent, Grant said, but this approach is because many refugees are still waiting for approval from the federal immigration government regarding their asylum status.
“One of the most challenging situations is that for many federally subsidized housing, they will be eligible until their asylum standing is demonstrated through the United States (Citizenship and Immigration Services),” he said.
Instead, LIHI and other partners working with them, he said, have focused on transitional housing developments that don’t require citizenship.
But housing is part of the problem. Illnesses and illnesses worry others within the camp. M’beka, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told Campbell that many needed medical attention, he added.
“I’m sick, I have tuberculosis,” he said, adding that he still had no option to stay in the camp, where he feared transmitting the infection to others. “It’s dangerous. There are many other people who suffer from diseases. . . It’s a problem.
Fitness officials in King County told KIRO Newsradio in an email that mobile medical groups had visited the Kent camp. Grant told KIRO Newsradio that his groups knew a user at the camp had tuberculosis, but fitness officials clarified that there was no indication of an *active case* of tuberculosis (TB).
Health governments distinguish between active tuberculosis and inactive infections; the latter do not pose any threat of spread.
“We check to see if Americans in the camp have an inactive tuberculosis infection, as it is not a notifiable disease like tuberculosis,” a spokesperson for the public fitness department wrote in the email. “But because tuberculosis is much more common in the places where asylum seekers come from, they are at greater risk of developing it. ”
Health officials have said you have to spend hours with active tuberculosis in a closed environment to be at risk of infection. It is still unclear whether M’beka’s individual case is an inactive infection or a potentially unreported and unproven active disease, as the man has. he did not provide any medical history to KIRO Newsradio.
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Teams from Harborview Medical Center and other physical care organizations in the domain have been collaborating with LIHI to provide care to refugees, Grant said, adding that there are still other people living in the camp with “serious” untreated conditions.
“There have been outbreaks of COVID-19, we know of at least one case of tuberculosis,” he said. “And we try to prioritize other people based on their medical wishes for the housing assistance that we have, but we know that there are other people who still have pretty serious medical issues that we weren’t able to treat. Hopefully we can mobilize more resources to make sure that other people who are sick, other people with serious physical problems, can get the housing they want to live in a solid environment and get back on their feet.
At the time of publication, it is unclear when the remaining refugees may be placed into housing.
“We would be more than happy to serve those folks and provide them with housing if the county or the state had more funding,” Grant said. “We are in discussions with our government partners to see if this would be possible. But right now, those other people are out and they want to have housing.
A Kent city official familiar with the ongoing discussions told KIRO Newsradio that “things are moving,” but may only provide explicit details.
KIRO Newsradio has reached out to King County for clarification.
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